At what age do you plan to retire?

[Follow The Trend]

Before we get to the age question, we need to ask ourselves, "Do traders ever retire?"

I am not sure they ever do, but when I began trading I had the target of retiring when I was 40.

I am currently 34 and have a little way to go yet before I can consider retirement. I may miss my target, but I'll enjoy it!!

At what age do you plan to retire?

[Trade Up]

I have to say that as much as I would like to retire fairly young, I can never see the situation when I will stop trading - its in the blood.

How would I replace the buzz of trading? What would I do all day?

I like making money, and I like to make lots of it. There may come a day when I reach "burn out" and have no choice but to retire, but hopefully that day is a long long way off.

[feb2865]

I voted never

as long as I can watch the screen and I can make descicions rationally I will play the markets

I have slowed down a little . I don't trade everyday like I used to . As I get older maybe I'll slow down more, I don't know.

I will like to add something to the thread with all respect. Family matters

Trading is stressful and demand ton of time and concentration. Well you all know that. In my particular case, I have a 10 years old daugther. When she was getting around 7/8 years old, she slowly and carefully, in a sophisticated way, was pulling me out of the screen. She's now hitting me with "Daddy why don't you retire?" (I've been in this business since very young) Well, you know how kids are. The thing is that , if you have kids and they're growing, they will try to get your attention and the screen seems like an enemy to them.

Creating a balance is the key, but family, especially kids put a lot of weigth in your shoulders when it comes down to trading.

Other than money, trading creates a challenge and excitement. Also makes you a better disciplined and well-balanced person, well at least for me. I don't see my life when I get older, throwing chips on a poker table or spending the whole day at the mall. Trading when you get older will make you feel that you're still productive.





I apologize if I hijacked the thread

Reagrds

Raul

[Soultrader]

Great post Raul. Traders should not limit their life to just trading. Having a social balance is also important. I am still young and do not have the responsibilities of raising a family. Eventually I will, in which I plan to devote a good amount of time to my wife and children.

I think with age I may find it harder for me to be trading as much as I am right now. I plan on having multiple things on the side and I may limit my trading to only the morning session. The feeling of accomplishment and being productive is more important to me than money. So I don't think my ambition will ever die.

[swordude]

Probably 60's. But I'll never really retire. I'll always be working if you know what I mean.

[bdwarr6]

I voted 30's but honestly I dont see myself every not working. I have a working gene in my blood, I honestly can never sit still or not do something. When I go placed Im always trying to figure out how they make their profit what the profit/Cost ratio is and if they are a profitable company.

[artp01]

I voted for 40's. Realistically if one wants to perform at the highest level then by mid 40's he should retire. The pressure of trading in addition to the decision making ability will go downwards after that age.

[Rohitpatel]

I voted for 40's. I am just 20 year old now and i have capability to work till last 40's. I think this is better age for online trading and working in tarding markets.

[ezduzzit]

Well gosh, it seems I am a bit late to the party in answering this one.

When I first saw this thread I thought well heck, I am already 57 years old, I am almost at the accepted "retirement" age and I am wondering "Huh? "Who the heck wants to retire!" But as I got to thinking about it, I think that is possibly a separate question from when do I wish to leave trading behind.

I will risk sort of joining into the chorus here with other posters in this thread and say that I think retirement is grossly over-rated. In my opinion it is an entirely outmoded concept. I think perhaps it was never really much more than a dream of some day escaping the "drudge of work and bosses" in favor of the proverbial "Good Life" that must surely be waiting for us in the future if we just slaved and sacrificed for oh, say 40 years or so starting right now. Admittedly, upwards of 85% of people can barely stand going to their particular "jobs" each day, and thus the desire for a future escape, but that is an entirely different discussion for another day and possibly even a different forum.

Let's get back to trading itself. Why do we do it? What do we hope to get out of it? What does it extract from us in return? I think most of us could agree that we enjoy not only surviving but also occasionally beating the odds in the market. There is no question we have to treat trading as a business to survive in it, but don't most of us at least somewhat enjoy it as much as perhaps our children enjoy their videogames? Heck, to me it has sometimes seemed like the most fun I could have as an adult without it being illegal, immoral or fattening and it even pays me money in return!

But let's be really candid and honest with each other. We all know very well that actively trading day after day definitely "extracts its pound of flesh" from us as they say (for those of you for whom English is not your mother tongue, this is simply an idiom basically meaning we usually must sacrifice a great deal to get what we want in return.)

To trade successfully requires intense concentration, a constant willingness to accept being wrong (usually in the form of being punished by the markets in the form of loss of capital and the potential depression that may result therefrom) and almost super-human control of our emotions. Can any of us truly deny that occasional little nagging feeling that the market seems to take great pleasure in occasionally stomping us into the dirt and grinding its boot on our neck? Actually that kind of thinking is exceptionally hazardous to your your mindset and also your trading capital, but it does paint an entertaining picture of the risks, does it not?

As I sit here and calmly think about all that it requires to do this successfully, I find myself thinking of air traffic controllers No wonder most of them burn out at an early age! However, if we are willing to admit it to ourselves, even if not to the public at large, in our heart of hearts we know that most of us feel a sort of "addiction" to this game of trading. Yes, I know that many will read that and pooh pooh that whole idea, holding themselves aloft and above such petty feelings about their involvement in this illustrious industry but how many of us can honestly deny that it is somehow in our blood?

Let's ask ourselves a question or two. If the key goals and reasons (or the big WHY's) that brought us to trading were suddenly fulfilled, would we stick around hour after hour, day after day intensely studying our monitors, always keyed upon looking for that one high probability trigger to jump on yet another risky trade, in a marketplace well known for gobbling up trader's accounts as though they were candy?

Here is a slightly different thought along those same lines. As much as humans love the comfort of "routine" they also crave variety. They say that trading, when done right, is very routine and possibly a bit boring. Once you have spent upwards of several thousand hours in front of the monitors trading back and forth, the fortunate amongst you may eventually have a breakthrough and trading will become much easier. You may get to that stage where instead of fighting to extract your 1 or 2 points a day, you are able to extract multiples of that from the market on a regular basis. What then? Isn't it the struggle and challenge that provides the real zest of trading?

Isn't Life designed to be an amazing adventure? Is it desirable or even prudent to plan on remanining tied down to the same old thing, especially in our later years?

Each year I grow more convinced that the time we spend with our friends, immediate family and assorted loved ones, enjoying those simple every day moments together is the greatest pleasure in Life. After all, while not wishing to seem morbid at all, I daresay that on your deathbed in the future, there will not be many amongst us who will bother to pause even briefly to think that perhaps they should have put in more hours or days trading.

Ok, you have endured more than enough hardship here reading through my lengthy response to the riddle of when or if to retire from trading and it is high time for an answer!

YES, I shall most definitely retire from trading

I shall only continue trading as long as I can continue to do it successfully and even then only as long as it remains more fun than it is stressful. But I shall never retire from doing something productive with my time, whether you call that work or not.

I shall tell you that the only reason I have been able to successfully focus the several thousand hours necessary to achieve a breakthrough in my trading is only because my "WHY" is much bigger than my own self involvement. The biggest reason I trade is so that I can donate an ever increasing amount to charitable foundations that sponsor and provide for children who do not have the benefits in Life that I have enjoyed. To me, that has made all the difference and it is the driving impetus behind why I do what I do in trading. If it were just about money for me or the vicarious thrill of trumping the markets on a more regular basis, I would already be long gone and wasting away on some little beach in Thailand sipping on those cute little umbrella adorned drinks.

Thanks for reading and thanks to James (alias Soultrader) for providing us the venue to speak our mind in this great trading forum. I always enjoy reading the comments from the other traders here and find that the more I read, the more I am convinced that we all are very much more alike than we are different. I think that is something to be celebrated and appreciated.

Happy Trading

[Soultrader]

I absolutely love your posts ez. I admire the charity work.. its something I have been doing on a small scale but one of the things I look forward to doing in the future.

Helping others is the most rewarding feeling for me. One of the plans I have in the future is to provide a public computer facility for the children in the ghetto. It's something that struck me when I lived in Boston. The gap between the poor and the rich was unbelievable compared to my hometown Tokyo. (Sorry... this is irrelevant)

As much as I love to trade, I know at some point in my career I will get burnt. I am also never satisfied with doing just one thing. Which is why I often have multiple projects at the same time. I will always be trading but I look forward to balancing my time with other ventures as well.

Trading is in our blood. My blood type is 60% poker/ 40% trading. A very hard combination for most people to understand.

I think those who have accepted the challenge and have accomplished things that they never thought they could, appreciate life a little more than those who never try. The sense of accomplishment is definitely a natural high. Perhaps this is because I hold an entreprenuer like mindset.

"Nothing is impossible" - Adidas -

I like their slogan very much